Membrane digestion and transport under physiological conditions: a review of available data

A technique to study membrane digestion and transport in the small intestine under physiological conditions has been developed. The technique is based on a continuous perfusion of a chronically isolated loop of the rat small intestine. Membrane hydrolysis and transport of some nutrients in the rat small intestine in chronic, as well as in acute (in situ) experiments was investigated. The absorption of hexoses and amino acids has been found to be 2.5-4 times higher under physiological conditions than in acute in situ experiments. Both the active transport of glucose released from maltose hydrolysis and the hydrolysis of the latter is increased under physiological conditions. A coupling between the final stages of hydrolysis and the initial stages of transport in chronic experiments was shown to be highly efficient; practically all or nearly all glucose released is being transported without entering the luminal phase. The hydrolysis rate of starch during the perfusion of a small intestinal segment in chronic experiments is many times higher than that in acute experiments or under anaesthesia. The enzymatic and transport activities revealed using a widely accepted technique in situ, the more so, in vitro account for only a small fraction of those which are typical of undisturbed processes under conditions close to the physiological. The levels of functioning of the digestive-transport systems of the small intestine considered as natural levels developed in the process of evolution, actually reflect only residual processes and, in most cases, they account for 1/3 to 1/10 of the true level of an actual physiological process.